Chapter 5

	Ami had been dreading going to the lab since the moment she 
woke up the following Monday morning. Having to sit through his class 
that morning was bad enough, but the thought of being alone with 
Professor Kitagawa after what she had done the night before made her 
feel uncomfortably hot. She tried not to think about it if she could 
help it, throwing herself into the rest of her classes with even more 
passion than usual, but, upon arriving at the Institute of Medical 
Science at her usual time, she knew she couldn’t put off the inevitable 
any longer.

	After flashing her I.D. badge to the man on duty at the front 
desk, Ami headed to the first floor women’s restroom, instead of the 
elevators as she normally did when she arrived. Her face was hot again, 
so turning on the cold tap, she splashed some water on it in an 
attempt to cool down. It did help a little, but when she finally 
looked up at her reflection in the mirror, patting her face dry with 
her handkerchief, Ami frowned when she saw her cheeks was still quite 
pink.

	“This is ridiculous, Ami,” she said to her reflection once she 
checked to make sure she was the only one in there. “I’m sure you’re 
not the only one of sensei’s students who has ever fantasized about him 
like that. How many times have you heard Yuuki-san and her group 
giggling about how cute he is as they leave the classroom? It‘s 
practically an everyday occurrence.”  

	Her attempt at a rationalization did little to console her. In 
fact, the thought of other girls doing what she had done in the bathtub 
while fantasizing about the professor made Ami feel a small prickle of 
unfamiliar jealousy at the back of her mind before she shook her head 
and reminded herself that she had no right to feel that way. After all, 
she wasn’t his girlfriend, and never would be.

	What in the world was wrong with her? Had Minako’s frequent 
teasings about her so-called “crush” on Professor Kitagawa finally worn 
her down so much that she actually believed it was true? Or had the 
feelings been there all along, just waiting to emerge with the right 
catalyst?

	Ami shook her head again to erase the thoughts from her head, 
and then took a deep breath to calm herself. A glance down at her watch 
showed it was 4:55. She needed to go up to the lab if she didn’t want 
to be late. With one more glance in the mirror, Ami shifted the weight 
of the book bag on her shoulder before leaving the restroom and heading 
to the elevator.

	When she entered the small office/storeroom, she was surprised, 
but a bit relieved, to discover that Professor Kitagawa had not yet 
arrived. Ami set her bag down on the counter where she usually kept her 
things and started washing her hands at the nearby sink.

	As she was putting on her lab coat, the door to the office 
opened and a rather harried-looking Professor Kitagawa stepped inside. 
“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized, placing his briefcase down at his desk 
and shrugging out of his blazer to change into his lab coat. 
"Department meeting went long today, which certainly wasn’t helped by 
Nakajima-sensei and Kamina-sensei getting into it again over those damn 
mice. I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

	Ami, who could feel her face becoming hot again, looked down at 
the floor and shook her head. “Only a few minutes,” she managed to say.

	“Good.” After washing his hands, the professor handed Ami the 
instructions for that day’s experiment and smiled. “Shall we get to 
work then?” he asked, his voice somehow cheerful even though Ami could 
hear a slight crack betraying the awkwardness that was almost tangible 
between them after what had happened at the game.

	With a nod, she silently followed him into the lab and started 
setting up for the day’s experiment.

	Though Professor Kitagawa tried his best to pretend that things 
were back to normal between them, that yesterday never happened, Ami 
had a difficult time concentrating on the experiment. Every time she 
caught him looking at her or their arms accidentally brushed against 
each other, it felt as if her entire face was on fire. After a while, 
when he seemed to realize that his attempt at normalcy wasn’t working, 
the professor gave up trying to engage her in their usual conversation, 
only speaking to give instructions or read out results. The silence 
made the sound of an empty test tube from Ami’s hand crashing to the 
floor especially startling, causing the both of them to jump in 
surprise.

	“Sorry,” Ami mumbled, bending down to carefully pick up the 
larger pieces of shattered glass. “I’ll clean it up.”

	The professor nodded and brought over the small wastebasket 
beside his desk for her to use to throw the glass away. He then kneeled 
down beside her with a small broom and dustpan and started sweeping the 
smaller pieces.

	“N-No, it was my fault,” she objected. “I wasn’t paying 
attention. I should clean up.”

	“I don’t mind…”

	“Please.”

	The professor reluctantly stopped and handed the broom and 
dustpan over to Ami, though he didn’t stand back up. Instead, he stared 
at her as she resumed the sweeping, her eyes cast to the ground.

	“Ami-chan, are you still freaked out about the hug yesterday?” 
he finally asked, his voice soft. “Because if you are uncomfortable 
working with me, maybe it would be best if we parted ways. If you still 
want to work here, I can talk to Nakajima-sensei, and I’m sure he would 
be happy to take you on as his assistant…”

	Ami shook her head. “It’s not you, sensei,” she assured him, 
dumping the final bit of the glass into the wastebasket. “It’s me.”

	“Hey, are you breaking up with me?”

	He chuckled at his weak joke, and Ami managed a small smile. 
"I’m fine, really,” she said, forcing herself to look up at her teacher. 
“It’s not the hug. You’ve already apologized for that. I guess it’s 
just one of those days.”  

	“Your face is red,” he pointed out.

	“Oh, it is?” She brought a hand to her cheek, finding it was 
indeed warm again.

	“I think you may have a fever, Ami-chan. Here, let me check.” 
He placed a cool hand on her forehead, the other on his own to compare, 
and frowned. “You do feel a little warm.”

	Startled by his touch, Ami quickly rose to her feet and shook 
her head. “I’m fine,” she insisted again, though she was beginning to 
feel a little dizzy from standing up so fast. Closing her eyes, she 
rested her hands on the lab table until the world stopped spinning 
around her.

	“You don’t look fine, Ami-chan. Perhaps it would be best if we 
wrapped things up here and I sent you home,” he said, also standing 
back up.

	“B-But the experiment…”

	“It can wait. The important thing is your health. Go home, Ami
-chan. I can handle things here.” 

	Ami opened her mouth to protest, but realized there was no 
point in arguing. As much as she hated to admit it, her medical 
instincts told her she probably was coming down with something. 

	“Are you sure it‘s okay if I leave?” she asked instead.

	“I insist,” he said. “In fact, why don’t I take you home 
myself? I don’t like the idea of you walking home in your condition, 
especially when it‘s raining like this.” Some time while they were 
working, a small storm had begun outside.

	“N-No, I don’t want to impose. I can call my mother to come 
pick me up. Today’s her day off.”

	The professor nodded. “Okay, I’ll see you when you get better, 
then. Get well soon.”	

	Ami headed back to the office and changed out of lab coat, 
placing it back in the closet. She then pulled her cell phone out of 
her bag and dialed her mother’s number, her voice small as she said:

	“Mama, can you pick me up?”

*****

	Makoto was busy preparing a batch of miso soup in the kitchen 
when she heard the door to the apartment open, earlier than she 
expected. Ami usually didn’t finish at the lab until seven at the 
absolute earliest. However, instead of the usual “Tadaima!” that 
followed whenever Ami arrived home, there were two voices coming from 
the living room, one which she couldn’t quite recognize, though it 
sounded familiar. Leaving the soup to boil, she came out to find Ami 
laying on the couch, her mother throwing an afghan over her.  

	“Okaa-san, please don’t make such a fuss,” Ami was saying as 
Dr. Mizuno tried to tuck the blanket around her as if she was a child. 
“It’s just a little fever. I’ll be fine after some rest.”

	The blue-haired doctor ignored her daughter’s protests, digging 
through her bag and pulling out a thermometer. “Nonsense. You can never 
be too careful when a fever is involved.” After shaking the thermometer 
a couple of times, she handed it over to Ami. “Here, put this under 
your tongue.”

	Makoto, who remained standing in the entrance, seemingly 
unnoticed by her roommate or her mother, finally spoke up. “Mizuno-
sensei, what’s going on? Is Ami-chan sick?”

	“Oh, Kino-san, I didn’t see you there,” the doctor said, 
briefly looking in Makoto’s direction before sitting down on the edge 
of the couch and placing a hand on her daughter’s forehead even though 
she was already taking Ami’s temperature with the thermometer. “Ami 
called me from the laboratory to come pick her up. Her boss sent her 
home early because she was feeling feverish.”

	“I’m okay, Mako-chan,” Ami mumbled, her words difficult to make 
out with a thermometer in her mouth.

	“Don’t talk while you’re taking your temperature, Ami. You 
should know better than that,” Dr. Mizuno scolded. After a few more 
seconds, she took the thermometer back and sighed. “Thirty-nine 
degrees. I suspected as much.”

	“Is there anything I can do?” Makoto offered, feeling useless 
just standing around.

	“Some soup for Ami would be nice, if you happen to have a can 
on hand.”

	“Actually, I was just finishing up some miso soup for our 
dinner. I’ll go get a bowl. Would you like anything, Mizuno-sensei? 
Tea? Coffee? There‘s plenty of soup…”

	“No, I’m fine, Kino-san. Thank you.”

	In the kitchen, Makoto poured some of the hot soup into a 
covered bowl and set it down on a breakfast tray, along with a couple 
of packs of pre-packaged crackers she had swiped from the restaurant 
and a glass of water. When she came back out, Ami was taking some 
medicine her mother gave her.

	“-- sure you don’t want me to stay, Ami?” her mother asked 
while Ami swallowed her pills down with some bottled water that Dr. 
Mizuno must have given her. “I don’t mind at all.”

	“Thank you, but you should go home and get some rest,” Ami 
replied. “I’m sorry I bothered you on your day off.”

	“You’re never a bother, sweetheart.” Brushing the hair off her 
daughter’s face, the doctor kissed Ami on the forehead, then stood, 
turning around to face Makoto, who had not wanted to disturb the moment 
between mother and daughter. “Kino-san, make sure she gets plenty of 
rest and drinks a lot of fluids,” she said. “If her fever reaches over 
forty degrees or she starts experiencing any other symptoms, I want you 
to call me. I’ll be back tomorrow night after my shift to check on 
her.”

	“I’ll take good care of her, Mizuno-sensei,” Makoto promised.

	“Arigatou.” After putting her things away in her bag, Dr. 
Mizuno turned back toward Ami. “As for you, young lady, don’t even 
think of going to school tomorrow. Doctor’s orders.”

	Though Makoto expected Ami to protest, knowing how much her 
roommate hated missing classes, all she did was nod her head in 
acceptance. “Hai, okaa-san.”

	“I’ll see you two tomorrow, then. Good night.”

	“Good night,” Makoto and Ami both said in unison.

	Once her mother had left, Ami sat back up on the couch, tossing 
the blanket aside, and Makoto set the tray over her lap. Ami managed a 
couple of spoonfuls, but then set her spoon down, motioning for Makoto 
to take it away.

	“Do you not like it?” Makoto asked, unaccustomed to anybody not 
finishing one of her dishes. “Is it too hot?”

	“No, it’s delicious!” Ami quickly assured her. “I’m just not 
very hungry at the moment.”

	“Oh. Okay, I’ll just set it aside for later.”

	Makoto picked up the tray and placed it on the nearby coffee 
table. She then took a seat in the armchair, watching with concern as 
Ami groaned, rolled over on her side, and pulled the blanket back over 
her. In all the years she had known Ami, this was the first time she 
could recall her roommate being so ill.

	“Mako-chan, stop staring at me like that,” Ami chided with a 
small smile when she caught Makoto looking at her. “I’m not dying. 
Okaa-san just thinks it a little flu bug. In fact, you probably should 
stay away from me. There‘s no reason for you to get sick too.” 

	“I’ll be fine,” Makoto replied, shaking her head. “I’ve always 
had a pretty strong immune system.”

	“Still, you don’t have to be my nursemaid. I’ll be… I’ll be 
o--”

	“Ami?”

	The blue-haired girl threw off the afghan, and, holding her 
stomach, ran to the bathroom. 

*****

	Ami failed to show up for their Tuesday afternoon lab session, 
though her absence did not come as much of a surprise to Akira. Being 
the responsible student she was, she had emailed all her professors to 
inform them she had a bad case of the flu -- a diagnosis confirmed by 
her doctor mother -- and would not be attending any of her classes 
until next Monday at the earliest. 

	During his walk home from the lab that evening, Akira debated 
whether or not it would be appropriate to call Ami to see how she was 
feeling. On one hand, he had been the one to first notice her illness, 
and he was concerned about her, but, if he called her, he feared she 
might read something into it that wasn’t there. Despite her insistence 
to the contrary, he suspected her behavior the previous afternoon had 
more to do with the awkwardness of the situation between them than her 
health.

	Sighing, he entered his apartment and was greeted by an eager 
Mercury. Since Akira had stayed at the lab later than usual, the day’s 
experiments taking longer without Ami’s assistance, Matsuno had already 
come by to take Mercury for his evening walk. That meant the Corgi was 
most likely hungry. 

	“Okay, in a minute, in a minute,” Akira laughed, slipping off 
his jacket and tossing it over the back of the couch. 

	Mercury barked in understanding and ran into the kitchen, 
followed shortly by Akira, who grabbed a can of dog food from the 
cabinet and opened it. While the dog happily munched on the dinner of 
turkey and gravy in his food bowl, Akira looked in his refrigerator and 
made a face at the lack of selection for his own dinner. “How pathetic. 
The dog eats better than I do,” he dryly chuckled.

	For a moment, his mind flashed back to the day when Ami made 
him that delicious lunch, and his stomach growled in memory. Akira 
closed the refrigerator door, having found nothing worth eating, and 
decided to order a pizza.   

	While he waited for the pizza to be delivered, Akira checked 
his email and sent a brief message to Ami inquiring about her health 
and telling her she didn’t need to worry about their lab sessions. 
Email seemed like the safest choice considering the situation: 
impersonal, yet concerned. He reread it three times to make sure 
nothing could be misconstrued as inappropriate, then hit the “Send” 
button.

	By that time, the pizza had arrived. Sitting down at the small 
kitchen table, Akira pulled a slice of cheesy goodness from the box and 
thought about what he would do with Ami out for the rest of the week, 
if not longer. He had managed to get by on his own for a day, but the 
rest of the experiments he had lined up for the week really required 
more than one person to be performed correctly, and he didn‘t want to 
put them off.

	He needed to find a temporary replacement for Ami, but it would 
not be easy to find someone on such short notice, especially someone 
with Ami’s experience. Most of the pharmacy and chemistry grad students 
were busy with their own work and projects or had already been hired by 
the other professors as assistants. Akira wondered if Dr. Nakajima 
might be willing to spare one of his for a few days, but, remembering 
that he was in the middle of preparing an important presentation for a 
genetics conference he was going to next month, he quickly rejected 
that idea.

	That really only left him with one choice. In addition to Ami, 
there had been one other person to apply for the position when he 
originally offered it, though a couple of days too late. He didn’t know 
how experienced Yokoyama Yui was in a laboratory, but her grades did 
compare very favorably to Ami’s. If she was even vaguely familiar with 
laboratory procedure, she would probably make a decent enough 
replacement. 

	After finishing his second slice of pizza, Akira put the rest 
away in the fridge to be eaten later, then headed back to the living 
room, where he logged onto his computer and pulled up the database he 
had made with all his students’ contact information. He wrote down her 
phone number on a Post-It note and reached for the phone to dial the 
number.

	The phone rang a total of ten times before he gave up, sighing 
as he placed the receiver back in its cradle. He really needed to get a 
hold of Miss Yokoyama that night if he wanted to have an assistant by 
tomorrow.

	Just then, Mercury came out of the kitchen and jumped up on the 
couch with a chewed-up tennis ball in his mouth. Laughing, Akira was 
about to take the ball away from him when he remembered something.

	Miss Yokoyama was going out with his dog-walker Matsuno Hideki, 
which meant if she wasn’t at her dorm room, then it was possible she 
was at his apartment just a few feet away. Even if she wasn’t, though, 
perhaps Matsuno knew where he could find her or would be willing to 
give him her cell phone number. After giving Mercury a pet of thanks on 
the head for reminding him of that fact, Akira headed to his neighbor’s 
apartment and hoped his hunch was right. 

*****

	It had been a very good day for Yui.

	For the first time since they started attending Tokyo 
University, Mizuno Ami had not shown up for the two classes they shared 
on Tuesdays: world history and nutrition. Rumor had it that Little Miss 
Perfect had the flu and would be out for the rest of the week, if not 
longer, which gave Yui the perfect opportunity to reclaim her “star 
pupil” title, instead of having to compete with the girl genius for 
their teachers’ attention. Of course, once Miss Mizuno recovered from 
her illness and caught up with all the work she had missed while she 
was sick, things were bound to return back to normal, but Yui fully 
intended to make the most of the situation while she could.

	That was why the moment she arrived at Hideki’s place for 
another one of their study dates, she went straight to work on her 
reading for tomorrow‘s classes, determined to remember every single 
obscure fact she could about the circulatory system.

	“I thought you told me that Mizuno-san was out sick for the 
week,” Hideki said, sighing as he plopped down beside Yui on the couch. 
“Doesn’t that mean you can afford to slack off for a few days?”

	“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yui scolded, not even looking up from 
her textbook to look at him. “This is my chance to reclaim some of my 
former glory. I’m not going to blow it by being lazy about my studies 
just because Mizuno-san has the flu. If anything, I‘ve got to work 
harder.”

	“But why? You know nobody else can touch you when it comes to 
grades. I bet even if you didn‘t study at all, you would still get top 
marks.”

	Turning the page, Yui shot Hideki a dirty look out of the 
corner of her eye. She couldn’t believe he would even say such a thing. 
Honestly, did he know her at all? “I’m not going to settle for 
adequate, Hideki. Now, shut up so I can concentrate.”

	“Fine, fine.”

	Reaching for one of his own books, Hideki flipped through the 
pages a bit more forcibly than usual before finally stopping on the 
correct chapter and starting to read. Yui sensed he was angry, but she 
ignored his little temper tantrum in favor of studying a diagram 
showing the different parts of the heart. She would make it up to him 
later, *after* she finished all her work for the night. There was no 
way Hideki was going to manipulate her into one of his so-called “study 
breaks” tonight.

	So intent was she on studying that Yui barely heard the knock 
on the door or noticed when Hideki got up to answer it.

	“Hey, Yui,” Hideki said after a short conversation with whoever 
it was at the door, “someone’s here to talk to you.”

	Annoyed by the unwelcome interruption, Yui huffed loudly, 
blowing a strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail out of her 
face. “Hideki, I told you to be quiet. I’m trying to study.”

	“I know, but I think you really want to talk to Kitagawa-
sensei. He says he wants to ask you something.”

	“Sensei?” 

	Yui immediately shut her book and jumped up from the couch, 
confused. What in the world was her chemistry professor doing at her 
boyfriend’s apartment, looking for her?

	“Gomen nasai, Yokoyama-san. I hope I’m not interrupting 
anything important,” Professor Kitagawa said as he entered the 
apartment and slipped off his shoes. “I called your dorm room first, 
but nobody answered, so I thought I might catch you here. This won‘t 
take long, I assure you.” 

	“It’s fine,” Yui assured him sweetly, sitting back down as the 
professor took a seat in Hideki’s ratty armchair. “We were just 
studying.”

	Coming up behind the couch, Hideki muttered something that 
sounded suspiciously like, “Sure, she doesn’t bite *his* head off,” 
then asked in a louder voice, “Would you like anything to drink, 
Kitagawa-sensei?”

	The professor shook his head. “No, thank you, Matsuno-kun. I 
really don’t intend to stay long. As I told you at the door, I just 
wanted to ask Yokoyama-san a favor.”

	“A favor?” she asked, surprised.

	“Yokoyama-san, near the beginning of the semester, you 
expressed an interest in becoming my new lab assistant, but I couldn’t 
hire you at the time because the position had already been filled by 
Mizuno Ami-san,” he unnecessarily reminded her.

	“When was this?” Hideki asked, looking down at Yui. “I don’t 
remember you mentioning anything like that to me, Yui.”

	“I didn’t get the job, so I didn’t see much of a point in 
telling you about it,” Yui explained with a shrug before turning her 
attention once again to the professor. “Kitagawa-sensei, what does that 
have to do with anything?”

	“Well, as you probably know, Mizuno-san has fallen ill,” 
Professor Kitagawa said. “She’s not expected back at school until next 
week at the earliest, but, unfortunately, she chose a bad time to get 
sick. We are in the middle of an important series of experiments, and I 
would prefer not to get behind schedule if at all possible.”

	Starting to see to what he was leading, Yui nodded in 
understanding. “So you are looking for a replacement to take Mizuno-
san’s place.”

	“Exactly. Would you be willing to take the job, Yokoyama-san? 
It would only be for a few days, until Mizuno-san is back on her feet, 
and, of course, you would be paid for your trouble.”

	Yui tried her best not to look overly eager, pretending to 
think it over though she knew her answer the moment he had asked. Could 
her day get any better? Not only was Little Miss Perfect out sick for 
the week, she was being offered the very job that Miss Mizuno had 
effectively stolen from her. It didn’t even matter to Yui if it was 
only a temporary position. Perhaps if she played her cards right, it 
might even turn into something a little more permanent.

	“It would be an honor to work with you, Kitagawa-sensei,” Yui 
finally answered when an adequate amount of time had passed.

	“You’re taking the job?” Hideki asked. “But what about your 
stu--?”

	A glare from Yui, which Professor Kitagawa didn’t appear to 
notice, shut Hideki up.

	“Great,” the professor said, standing from his chair. “Come by 
my academic office tomorrow morning before your first class. I’ll have 
a temporary ID card waiting for you, and, if there’s time, I’ll fill 
you in on what I expect of you. Sessions will start around five, but 
they shouldn’t last longer than seven or eight at the latest, so you 
should have plenty of time to study. Also, I‘d like to hold some 
weekend sessions if you have the time.”

	“That sounds fine, sensei. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Yui 
said, showing him to the door.

	“Goodbye, and thank you. I really appreciate it.”

	With that, Professor Kitagawa headed back to his own apartment, 
Yui closing the door behind him and unable to hide the pleased smile on 
her lips. When she turned back around, Hideki had his arms folded over 
his chest and wore a look that was usually more at home on her face 
than his.

	“What the heck was that all about?” he demanded to know. “Just 
an hour ago, you were telling me that nothing was more important than 
your studies, and now you’ve accepted a job working with Kitagawa-
sensei in his lab?”

	“It’s just for a few days,” Yui replied airily, coming over and 
wrapping her arms around his neck. “Besides, it’ll look good on my med 
school application.”

	“Yeah, but--”

	Yui shook her head, bringing one of her fingers to his lips. 
She already knew what he was going to say, and she didn’t want to hear 
it.

	“Don’t spoil this for me, Hideki. I know it’ll mean less time 
for us, but it’s only temporary. Until then, what do you say we make 
the most of tonight? I feel like celebrating.” 

	“Celebrating?”

	Smiling her most seductive smile, Yui took Hideki’s hand and 
led him to the bedroom, for once, not caring the least about her 
unfinished homework still sitting on the coffee table.

*****

	In his office at the lab, Akira sat at his computer, typing in 
the results of the day’s experiments. Normally, that would be the job 
of his lab assistant, but, since he felt bad for asking Miss Yokoyama 
to come in for an extra Sunday session, he had offered to do it 
himself, insisting that she leave early and go see her boyfriend, who 
Akira knew must be missing her.

	Miss Yokoyama, as he had hoped, had been more than competent in 
the laboratory, almost as good as Ami. Still, Akira had to admit he 
would be glad when the blue-haired girl came back to work. He had 
missed her. Even if her replacement had proved to be equal to the task, 
he found that Miss Yokoyama lacked a certain…passion, for lack of a 
better term, that Ami seemed to possess in spades.

	Akira had just finished printing out a copy of a report Dr. 
Nakajima was asking for when he heard a knock on the door and the 
professor himself popped his head inside.

	“Oh, good, you’re still here,” the older professor said, 
entering the room when Akira waved him in. “I thought I might have 
missed you. Do you have that report for me?”

	Akira handed the report over and nodded. “Everything is looking 
well so far,” he said as Dr. Nakajima flipped through the papers. “No 
more reports of illness in the mice since we got rid of the infected 
groups.”

	“What about side effects to the medication?”

	“Very minor. Barely worth mentioning, but everything is 
recorded on page five of the report.”

	“Good, good.” Dr. Nakajima tucked the file folder under his 
arm. “So, how about discussing this report over a cup of coffee?” he 
suggested. “My treat.”

	Akira looked down at his watch, frowning when he saw that it 
was about eight-thirty. “This late at in the evening?”

	“You can get decaf if you want, but I could use a good jolt. I 
want to finish that presentation I’m giving on embryonic stem cells for 
next month’s JGEA conference tonight, so I can use any help I can get.”

	As Akira didn’t have any other plans for the night, other than 
heating up the rest of the leftover pizza in his fridge and watching 
the Giants/Swallows game he had recorded the previous night, he agreed 
to the coffee, the two of them heading to the popular coffeehouse on 
campus. Despite the late hour, the place was as packed as always with 
students getting their caffeine fix, most likely in order to stay up 
late to study. Akira remembered well all the late nights he had pulled 
during his undergraduate years.  

	They placed their order at the counter, then sat down at the 
only empty table in the room, which had been recently vacated by a 
young couple looking for somewhere more private, judging by how they 
could barely keep their hands off each other as they left the 
coffeehouse. While Dr. Nakajima was spreading out the papers as best he 
could over the small, round table, a waitress came by with their 
drinks, a decaf coffee for Akira and a cappuccino for Dr. Nakajima, who 
had also ordered two large donuts covered with chocolate icing and 
sprinkles.

	“Don’t say anything, Akira-kun,” his mentor warned before Akira 
even had a chance to lecture him. “I’ve been a good little dieter this 
week, so I deserve a treat.”

	“I don’t know why I even bother anymore, quite frankly,” Akira 
said with a roll of his eyes, reaching for a couple of sugar packets 
from the bowl at the center of the table. “You never listen to me 
anyway.”

	“The boy finally catches on.” Picking up one of the printouts, 
Dr. Nakajima began casually looking over the results. “So, how’s the 
temp working out?” he asked. 

	Akira, who had expected them to discuss the lab reports, was 
mildly surprised by the question. “Yokoyama-san? She’s…fine,” he said, 
tearing the packets and dumping the sugar into his coffee. “Very 
professional and more than capable.”

	“It was lucky you were able to find a replacement for Mizuno-
san on such short notice.”

	“Yokoyama-san was the only other person who applied for the 
position when I was looking for a new assistant to replace Jiro-kun. 
Besides, her boyfriend lives in my building, so it wasn’t difficult to 
get a hold of her and convince her to fill in for Ami-chan for a few 
days.”    

	“Do you plan to hire her full-time even after Mizuno-san 
returns?”

	Akira arched an eyebrow at his former professor while stirring 
his coffee, wondering what in the world was behind Dr. Nakajima‘s 
sudden interest in Yokoyama Yui. As far as he knew, the two had never 
even met. 

	“Nakajima-sensei, what’s with all these questions about 
Yokoyama-san?” he asked suspiciously, ignoring the question.

	“No reason. I just thought it might be a good idea for you to 
hire another assistant, that’s all,” Dr. Nakajima said with a shrug, 
flipping back a page in one of the reports. He seemed to be avoiding 
looking Akira in the eye.

	“Another assistant? Why? Ami-chan and I get along just fine on 
our own.” 

	“Be that as it may, it couldn’t hurt to have another pair of 
hands around, especially for occasions such as this one, with Mizuno-
san out sick for a significant period of time.”

	“Ami-chan isn’t prone to falling ill, Nakajima-sensei. I’ve 
looked over her attendance records, and this is the first time since 
she started attending Toudai that she has missed classes. I have no 
reason to believe this will be more than a one-time thing.”

	With a loud sigh, Dr. Nakajima put down the report. “Fine, if 
you must know the truth,” he said, “I didn’t ask you here to talk about 
the report. I wanted to discuss my concerns about you and Mizuno-san 
continuing to work together, alone.”

	“Concerns? I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking
about.”

	“The game, Akira-kun, the game.”

	Akira nearly choked on his coffee when he realized what Dr. 
Nakajima was insinuating. “You think just because I invited Ami-chan to 
take your seat that there’s something going on between us?” he asked in 
disbelief. “Come on, I told you I just happened to run into her at the 
game. We weren’t having some kind of clandestine meeting, if that‘s 
what you‘re thinking.”

	“But it wasn’t totally innocent, was it? The two of you shared 
a hug during the sixth inning.”

	“How do you know about that?” Akira didn’t remember telling Dr. 
Nakajima that part when he told him about the game.

	“You were in a public place. Did you really believe nobody had 
seen you?”

	“No, I suppose not,” he admitted, taking a sip of his coffee 
before continuing. “Still, the hug was perfectly harmless. There was 
nothing sexual or romantic about it. We were just excited about
Tanima’s home run, that’s all.”

	“Well, for both your sakes, I hope that’s true…”

	Something in his former professor’s voice caused Akira to set 
down his mug and frown. “Nakajima-sensei?”

	The graying man across from him sighed. “Akira-kun, I’m going 
to give you some advice,” Dr. Nakajima said, slightly leaning over the 
table. His voice had dropped a decibel in volume, and instinctively, 
Akira moved in closer to hear. “If you do happen to have romantic 
feelings toward this girl -- and I’m not saying you do -- you must 
fight them. No good can come from such a relationship; this I know from 
personal experience.” 

	“You mean…?” 

	Dr. Nakajima nodded. “Yes, it’s not something I’m proud to 
admit, but many years ago, I engaged in an affair with one of my female 
students.”

	Akira’s eyes widened significantly at the confession. “You?” he 
asked, shaking his head. “Impossible.”

	“I, too, am human, Akira-kun, vulnerable to the same weaknesses 
and desires as any other man. Don’t think of me as infallible.”

	“N-No, it’s not that,” Akira said, still trying to wrap his 
mind around Dr. Nakajima’s revelation. Another reason, one that Akira 
had long suspected about his teacher but never had confirmed, made his 
admission difficult to believe. “It’s just that back when I was in 
school, popular rumor hinted that you might be --”

	“-- gay?” he interrupted, chuckling. “No, no, no. I’m as 
heterosexual as you are, Akira-kun, though I can certainly understand 
why people would assume that. I’ve never been married, and I tend to 
keep my private life just that -- private.” 

	“Then why are you telling me this?” Akira asked. “This affair 
of yours is really none of my business.”

	“Because I don’t want you to put your future here at the 
university in jeopardy. I managed to keep my indiscretion under wraps, 
but it is risky business dating one of your students.”

	“Well, you don’t need to worry about me, Nakajima-sensei. I 
have absolutely no intention of becoming involved with one of my 
students, neither now nor in the future.”

	“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

	Dr. Nakajima smiled, and Akira sat back in his chair, letting 
what he had just learned about his former teacher sink in. Despite 
himself, he had to admit he was more than a little curious about what 
had happened between Dr. Nakajima and the mystery student. For all 
Akira knew, she could have been one of his peers. He tried to remember 
if his former professor had paid special attention to any of his female 
classmates, but he didn’t recall anyone specific.

	“So…who was she?” Akira asked, his curiosity finally getting 
the better of him. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking. Was she 
anybody I knew?”

	“I doubt it. It happened a good ten to fifteen years before I 
taught you.”

	“What happened?”

	“Oh, there’s really not much to tell,” he admitted, wiping away 
the sprinkles on his lips with a napkin. “She was a student in my 
genetics class, the only girl in a classroom of thirty, and really 
quite brilliant, I must say. I suppose I was drawn to her because it 
was so unusual at that time for a girl to be interested in my field.”

	“Was she pretty?” 

	The older man nodded. “Very, though our relationship was more 
than physical attraction,” he was quick to make clear. “Anyway, we 
quietly began seeing each other, but even from the start, I knew it was 
doomed to fail. Not only were we under enormous stress trying to keep 
our relationship a secret, but there was quite a large age difference 
between us. As much as we cared about each other and enjoyed each 
other’s company, there are some things that are simply too difficult to 
overcome. We amicably parted ways a few months later, and the last I 
heard, she had gotten a divorce from the man she had married during 
medical school and was raising her daughter as a single parent.”

	“I’m sorry.”

	“Don’t be,” he sighed. “Looking back, I realize she was 
probably just a fling, a way of dealing with my mid-life crisis. I have 
to admit, it felt good having a beautiful, intelligent girl like that 
tell me how handsome and brilliant I was, and all the sneaking around 
we did to be together made me feel in some ways like a teenager again.” 
Dr. Nakajima chuckled, leaning back in his chair. “Pretty pathetic, 
huh?”

	“No…no… Well, maybe a little,” Akira admitted.

	His mentor laughed, not offended at all by his honesty. “That’s 
what I like about you, Akira-kun. You’re never afraid to tell it 
exactly as it is.”

***** 

	Ami never thought the day would come when she would ever get 
tired of reading, but she was. It felt like sleeping and reading was 
all she had done for the past six days. She couldn’t wait to get back 
to her classes, even if it did mean seeing Professor Kitagawa again.

	The good thing about her illness was that it put some much-
needed space between her and what had happened at the game and 
afterwards. Ami no longer felt as embarrassed as she had the previous 
Monday in the lab, though sometimes she still felt the occasional warm 
blush on her cheeks when she thought of her chemistry professor, which 
she explained away as her fever flaring up again. Even if she did have 
a crush on her teacher, was it really that bad? It wasn’t as if she 
intended to do anything about it. She would simply have to try her best 
to keep things on a professional level -- no more homemade lunches or 
accepting vacant seats at baseball games. Ami was sure she could handle 
it, now that she was more prepared to face things.

	With a loud yawn, Ami closed the book she had finished reading 
and took off her glasses, setting both items on the nightstand beside 
her bed. She had just settled underneath the blankets to go to sleep 
when she heard a soft knock on the door. 	

	“Come in,” Ami called, reluctantly sitting back up. 

	“Your mother’s here for your check-up, Ami-chan,” her roommate 
announced, the door opening to reveal the figures of the tall brunette 
and an older, blue-haired woman.

	The woman, her mother, swept past Makoto and took a seat on the 
edge of Ami’s mattress. “How are you feeling, honey?” she asked, 
opening her doctor’s bag and pulling out a thermometer.

	“A little tired, but, other than that, much better,” Ami 
answered. “I should be able to go back to school tomorrow.”

	Her mother smiled. “Well, as your doctor, let me be in charge 
of deciding that. Now, put this in your mouth.”

	Accustomed to the routine after having gone through it every 
night since she fell ill, Ami placed the thermometer under her tongue 
and held it there for about a minute. She then handed it back to her 
mother, who read the temperature but didn’t say anything about it. 
After that, her mother pulled out her stethoscope, warming the cool 
metal with her breath before checking Ami’s heartbeat and breathing.

	“So, can I go back to classes tomorrow?” Ami asked as her 
mother put her things back in the bag.

	“You do seem just about recovered, but, to be sure, I think 
it’s best to stay home at least one more day.”

	Ami‘s shoulders slumped. That had not been the answer she had 
hoped to hear. “Another day?”

	“I know how much you want to go back to school, sweetheart, but 
you need to build some of your strength back up. That was a nasty flu 
bug you had. You look exhausted, and Kino-san told me you haven’t eaten 
much.”

	“That was because I couldn’t hold anything down the first 
couple of days, and I haven’t regained my appetite yet,” Ami explained.

	“I’d still feel better if you tried to eat something,” her 
mother said, frowning. “Kino-san?”

	Makoto, who had stood silently at the door in case they needed 
anything, stepped forward. “Yes, Mizuno-sensei?”

	“Would you mind fixing Ami a late supper? It doesn’t have to be 
anything fancy. Some sandwiches would be just fine. She should be able 
to handle eating solids again.”

	“Hai. I’ll be back in a minute,” Makoto said, heading back to 
the kitchen.

	While the brunette was gone, her mother pulled out a small 
stack of what appeared to be magazines, but, on closer inspection, were 
revealed to be some medical journals. “Here, I thought you might enjoy 
these,” she said, placing the stack on nightstand, on top of the book 
Ami had been reading beforehand and underneath her glasses. “They’re a 
few months old, but I’m sure you’ll still find some of the articles 
interesting. I marked the ones I thought you might like to check out.”

	Though Ami didn’t think she would be up to any more reading any 
time soon, she still smiled in gratitude, not wanting to seem 
ungrateful. “Arigatou, okaa-san.”

	“In fact, I believe one of them was co-written by that 
professor you work for. Kitagawa Akira-sensei? That was his name, 
wasn‘t it?”

	“Sensei?” 

	Reaching for the journal sitting on the top of the stack, her 
mother flipped through the pages of “Pharmaceuticals Today” until she 
found the page marked by a blue Post-It. “’ Genetic Variation in the 
Gene Encoding Adiponectin Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Type 
2 Diabetes in the Japanese Population,’ by Nakajima Ryo-sensei, 
Kitagawa Akira-sensei, Kamina Ichiro-sensei, Naegino Kentaro-sensei, 
and Kumada Naoko-sensei,” she read aloud, her eyes seeming to linger 
for a moment on one of the pictures accompanying the article before 
handing the journal over to Ami. “I can see why you admire him so much. 
He appears to be as brilliant as you claim.”

	Ami felt her cheeks again grow hot, but she managed to hide her 
reaction to the professor’s name from her mother by hiding her face 
behind the journal. Without her reading glasses, it was difficult to 
make out the tiny, printed words of the article without giving herself 
a headache in the process, so she instead stared at the pictures 
underneath the by-line of the five people who had contributed to the 
paper.

	Two of the co-authors she did not recognize at all, while she 
had only met Professor Kamina a handful of times at the lab. However, 
she knew Professor Nakajima quite well. His picture was right beside 
Professor Kitagawa’s, which Ami couldn’t stop staring at despite the 
hotness of her face. Thankfully, Makoto soon returned with the 
sandwiches she had made, breaking Ami from the spell the professor’s 
picture had put on her.

	“I hope ham and cheese is okay,” her roommate said as Ami put 
the medical journal back with the others. “I didn’t have time to go to 
the store this weekend, so this was all we had.”

	“It’s fine,” Ami assured her, taking the plate she offered. 
Though she still wasn’t very hungry, she bit into one of the 
triangular-cut sandwiches to satisfy her mother and Makoto, who were 
both watching her as if she was a jack-in-the-box ready to pop. 
"Delicious.”

	“That’s my good girl.” Standing, her mother gave Ami a kiss on 
the forehead. “Now, you take it easy for one more day, you hear me? 
School can wait until Tuesday.”

	“Hai, okaa-san.” 

	With those final orders, Dr. Mizuno and Makoto said goodbye and 
left the room, leaving Ami to reach again for her glasses and peruse 
the medical journal with Professor Kitagawa’s article at her leisure.

*****

	Akira set down his eraser after cleaning the dry erase board 
and took off his reading classes, placing them back in their case. 
Classes were finally over for the day, and, starving, he looked forward 
to grabbing some take-out from the Chinese place near campus he enjoyed 
so much before it was time to head for the labs. Grabbing his sport 
coat off the back of his desk chair, Akira pushed his arms through the 
sleeves and was about to leave when he heard a timid knock on the door.

	“Come in, the door’s open,” he called, figuring it was probably 
just some student from his last class coming to pick up the notebook he 
had found sitting on one of the desks, left behind by its owner in the 
rush to leave and start the weekend. As the door slowly slid open, 
Akira reached for said notebook and held it up, his back mostly turned 
away from whoever was entering the classroom as he searched for his 
keys in the top desk drawer. “Looking for th--?”

	His question stopped short, and Akira dropped his located keys 
in surprise when he turned around and saw who it was. Standing in the 
doorway was Mizuno Ami, but for some reason he was unaware of, she was 
dressed in a summer school uniform, similar in style and color to the 
one his female classmates had worn at his old middle school.

	Akira, despite his valiant attempts otherwise, couldn’t stop 
staring at her long, slender legs, which were on prominent display 
thanks to the very short pleated skirt of the uniform and sexy knee-
high black socks. Shaking his head, he forced his eyes to move upward, 
only to notice how snug the top fit across her bust. It certainly 
didn’t help matters that the first two buttons were left unbuttoned -- 
or had they popped open? -- showing off more than a hint of cleavage.

	“A-Ami-chan?” he stuttered, at last managing to look up at her 
face, which wore a small, knowing smile. She knew exactly what kind of 
effect she was having on him, but the usually conservative dresser 
didn’t seem to mind his stares in the least. “W-What are you doing 
here?”

	Ignoring his question, Ami walked over to his desk and slowly 
bent over to pick up his dropped keys from the floor. The motion gave 
Akira a clear view of the black lacy panties underneath her skirt, and 
he quickly focused his eyes up on a poster of the periodic table 
hanging on the wall until she stood properly upright again.

	“Gomen. I didn’t mean to startle you, sensei,” Ami apologized, 
taking one of his hands and placing the keys in it. Was it his 
imagination, or didn’t her voice sound breathier than usual? “I was 
hoping you could give me a private tutorial.”

	“A tutorial?” he repeated, growing more confused by the minute, 
especially when she began running a hand up the arm she had refused to 
let go. “Ami-chan, you’re my best student. I doubt you need my help 
with chemistry.”

	“Who said anything about chemistry?” With a positively 
seductive grin on her red-painted lips, Ami let go of her hold on his 
arm and hopped on top of his desk. She then leaned back on her hands 
and slowly crossed her legs at the knees, giving Akira another free 
look at up her skirt. “The class I’m having trouble with is anatomy,” 
she said, “particularly the reproductive system. I was hoping you could 
help. You will, won’t you, sensei?”

	“Uh…um…”

	Akira couldn’t believe what was happening, the scene before his 
eyes rendering him completely speechless. What in the world had 
happened to the quiet, studious Ami he knew? Ami would never act so…
provocative, especially around one of her professors. If he didn’t know 
any better, he would swear she was actually trying to seduce him.  

	“Are you scared, sensei?” Ami asked, one of her hands reaching 
up to undo even more of the buttons on her shirt.

	Correction -- she was *definitely* attempting to seduce him.

	Akira quickly shrugged out of his jacket and used it to cover 
up his nearly half-undressed student. “Ami-chan, what do you think 
you’re doing?” he hissed. “This is completely inappropriate.”

	“That’s what makes it so exciting, ne?” she teased, promptly 
ridding herself of sport coat and tossing it to the floor. “Come on, 
sensei, you can’t honestly tell me you don’t like what you see.”

	That much was true, as much as he felt like a lecherous old man 
for thinking so. The sight of her bra, black and lacy to match the 
panties, underneath the opened shirt brought to mind thoughts -- 
arousing thoughts -- Akira knew he should not be having toward a 
student.

	“It doesn’t matter whether I like it or not,” he declared, 
deftly managing neither to confirm or deny her claim. “This is wrong. 
You are my student; I am your teacher.”

	The blue-haired girl waved his words off. “Labels. They’re only 
labels. The only thing that matters is how we feel about each other, 
and I am definitely attracted to you, Kitagawa-sensei.”

	Uncrossing her legs, Ami scooted up to the edge of the desk and 
reached for Akira’s tie, pulling him toward her and crushing her lips 
against his. At first, Akira was surprised by her boldness, but he soon 
allowed his hormones to take over, returning her kiss with equal 
passion. 

	At the back of his mind, Akira knew what they were doing was 
wrong, but no matter how hard he tried, his body would not cooperate 
with the messages his brain tried to send it. His hands, working on 
their own volition, found their way underneath the back of her shirt, 
and he fumbled with the clasp of her strapless bra, releasing her full, 
round breasts from the lacy confines.

	Meanwhile, as she continued to tease his tongue with her 
kisses, Ami undid his tie, then moved on to the small buttons of his 
shirt, her hands roving along the contours of his newly exposed torso 
as if she was caressing a swatch of velvet fabric. Akira moaned at the 
touch, and he barely noticed when she managed to slide the shirt down 
his arms and onto the floor. He pulled Ami closer toward him, enjoying 
the feel of her bared breasts against his chest, and ran his hands up 
and down her back underneath the shirt she still wore.

	Pulling away a short time later, Ami took one of Akira’s hands 
and placed it on her left breast. He could faintly feel her heart 
beating against her ribcage, but it wasn’t a nervous fluttering, 
feeling more like the excited pounding heartbeat of an athlete right 
before a big competition. His other hand was guided underneath the bit 
of fabric that passed for a skirt, and his fingers brushed against the 
slightly damp lace of her panties.

	“I’m ready for that anatomy lesson now, sensei,” Ami whispered 
in Akira’s ear, flicking her tongue over his sensitive earlobe.

	With a lusty moan, Akira lowered his student down on the 
suddenly clear surface of his desk… 

	And opened his eyes, only to realize the tongue lapping at his 
ear was Mercury’s.

	“Kuso,” he cursed, abruptly sitting upright in his bed.

	A dream. It was only a dream.

	Running a hand through his messy hair, Akira sighed and looked 
around him as Mercury jumped off the bed and started playing with a 
squeaky chew toy left lying on the floor. Sometime during the night, he 
had tossed his blanket off to the side, but Akira had somehow managed 
to get his legs tangled up in the sheets. He moved to untangle them, 
only to become acutely aware of an uncomfortable hardness between his 
legs.

	Akira swore again, debating whether he should head for the 
bathroom for a cold shower or take care of things himself. In the end, 
remembering what had caused the problem in the first place, he settled 
on the shower, the freezing cold water cooling down his desires, as 
well as waking him from his half-asleep state. 

	“What the hell is wrong with me?” he asked himself aloud, once 
the full impact of the dream hit him. “She’s my student, for crying out 
loud!”

	Akira immediately placed the blame on Dr. Nakajima and his 
crazy theories. That had to be it. He never would have been thinking 
about Ami in…that way if it hadn’t been for the conversation they had 
yesterday at the coffee house. Somehow, his mentor had planted the idea 
into his subconscious, resulting in the highly inappropriate dream 
about his assistant.

	Granted, the fact that it had been over a year since he last 
had sex certainly hadn’t helped matters…

	“Argh!”

	Feeling frustrated, Akira abruptly turned off the water and got 
out of the shower. Small beads of water droplets rolled down his body 
and hair and onto to the tiled floor, but he mostly ignored them, 
wrapping a large white towel around his waist and walking over to the 
sink to brush his teeth and shave. After grabbing his toothpaste and 
shaving cream from the medicine cabinet, Akira began his usual morning 
routine, suddenly stopping in mid-brush when he realized what day it 
was.

	Monday.

	The day his advanced organic chemistry class met, as well as 
the day when Ami was supposed to return to attending classes after her 
illness.

	Crap.

	The dream couldn’t have happened on a worse morning. How in the 
world was he supposed to teach Ami’s class after *that*? Akira wasn’t a 
religious man, but, if he had been, he would have sworn the gods were 
playing some kind of very sick joke on him.

	He would simply have to forget about the dream, put it 
completely out of his mind. That was the only thing he could do. It 
wasn’t as if he could cancel class just because he happened to have an 
erotic dream about one of his students, though the idea was tempting…

	Akira shook his head. “No, I can do this,” he said to his 
reflection in the mirror after spitting out his toothpaste in the sink. 
“No problem at all. Even if I did dream about Ami-chan, it didn’t 
really mean anything. It’s just a case of sexual frustration, that’s 
all.”

	At least he hoped.

*****

	“Ami, are you up yet?”

	Outside Ami’s bedroom door, Makoto, already dressed for her 
morning class at the community college, held a breakfast tray in her 
hands, consisting of a bowl of oatmeal, some toast, and a glass of 
orange juice in compliance with the promise she made Dr. Mizuno the 
night before that Ami would have a good breakfast. When Ami didn’t 
answer, Makoto carefully balanced the tray in one hand and slowly 
opened the door as not to disturb her roommate if she was still 
sleeping. 

	Ami was indeed still in bed, resting peacefully with a medical 
journal laying open face-down on her stomach and still wearing her 
reading glasses as if she had fallen asleep in the middle of reading, a 
sight that was not altogether unusual when Ami was concerned. After 
setting the tray down on Ami’s neatly organized desk, Makoto went over 
to the bed and tried her best to remove the glasses without waking Ami 
up.

	“Mako-chan?”

	Despite her care in taking off the glasses, dark blue eyes 
blinked open, first looking at Makoto, then darting over to the digital 
alarm clock sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. Ami squinted to 
read the numbers, and, when she realized what time it was, immediately 
sat up.

	“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” Ami gasped, throwing her 
blanket -- as well as the journal, which she didn’t seem to remember 
was still on her lap -- to the side. “I have an early class today!”

	Before Ami managed to get out of bed, Makoto reached for her 
shoulder, gently holding her down. “Ami-chan, your mother said no 
school today, remember?” she reminded the dedicated student. “You can 
go back tomorrow.”

	“But I feel fine, Mako-chan,” Ami insisted. “I can go to 
class.” 

	Makoto had to admit Ami was beginning to look like her old self 
again. The color had returned to her pallid skin, and the feverish look 
that had been present in her eyes for the past week had fully 
disappeared. However, if Dr. Mizuno thought it was best for Ami to stay 
home for another day, who was she to argue with doctor’s orders?

	“Tomorrow,” she repeated firmly in what the girls called her 
"mother voice,” moving Ami’s legs back on the bed and placing the 
blanket back over them.

	Ami sighed in defeat, but thankfully didn’t pout or whine as 
Minako or Usagi might have done if they had actually wanted to go 
school. (Fat chance of that, Makoto thought.) While Ami settled back 
into bed, Makoto placed her glasses on top of the stack of books and 
magazines sitting on top of the nightstand and bent down to pick up the 
medical journal which had fallen on the floor.  

	The journal had fallen right side up, open to an article which 
had been bookmarked by a blue Post-It note. Makoto briefly glanced it 
over, but she couldn’t even understand the title, much less what the 
article was about. She did, however, recognize the name of one of the 
five co-authors.

	“Kitagawa Akira-sensei? Hey, isn’t he that professor you work 
for at the laboratory?” Makoto asked, grinning when she looked up at 
his photograph. Ami hadn’t lied when she said her professor was 
handsome. With his lush, dark hair and green eyes full of intelligence, 
he looked like some kind of movie star. “Wow, he is a hottie! Why can’t 
any of my professors at J.C. be this cute?”

	“Mako-chan, may I have that back?” Ami inquired, holding out 
her hand, but strangely looking down at her blanket so Makoto couldn’t 
see her face.

	“In a minute,” she replied. “I haven’t finished looking yet.”

	“You wouldn’t be interested.”

	“If I had a teacher who looked like him, I’m sure he could have 
gotten me interested.” 

	Still, Ami had a point about her lack of interest in the 
article itself, so she reluctantly handed the journal back over to her 
flushed roommate, who immediately closed it and set it aside. Concerned 
by the sudden redness in her cheeks, Makoto placed a hand on her 
forehead.    

	“You aren’t getting a fever again, are you?” she asked, 
frowning.

	Ami vehemently shook her head and fanned herself with her hand. 
“I’m just a little hot, that’s all. Did you turn up the thermostat this 
morning?”

	“No, it’s the same temperature as always, but I can turn it 
down a couple of degrees for you before I leave.” 

	“I’ll be okay,” she said, looking over at the desk. “Is that my 
breakfast?”

	Makoto had almost completely forgotten about the tray she had 
made. She walked back over to the desk and dipped her finger slightly 
into the oatmeal to check if it was still warm. Luckily, it was, so she 
brought the tray over to the bed and placed it over Ami’s legs.

	“Well, I should probably head to class now,” she said once Ami 
was situated. “I left you an obento in the fridge for lunch, and I 
should be home in time to fix dinner. If you need anything else, just 
call me or your mother.”

	“Thanks, Mako-chan.” 

*****

	After getting dressed and taking Mercury on his morning walk, 
Akira headed for the university. On the way there, he went to 
McDonald’s for his usual breakfast-on-the-run -- an Egg McMuffin and 
a small coffee -- and stopped at a magazine kiosk to buy the morning 
paper, at the last minute deciding to purchase a men’s magazine as 
well. He wasn’t normally in the habit of reading such material, but 
Akira figured he could use all the help he could get in getting the 
dream about Ami out of his head before class started.

	When he arrived, the classroom was empty, as was to be expected 
at seven in the morning when the class didn‘t even start until nine. It 
was too early even for the over-achievers -- Ami among them -- to show 
up, getting a head start on copying the diagrams and formulas he 
usually already had drawn on the board for that day’s lecture or asking 
some last minute questions about the previous week’s homework. Taking a 
seat behind his desk, Akira put on his reading glasses and started to 
reach for the newspaper as usual before deciding on the magazine 
instead.

	After unwrapping his sandwich and taking a bite, Akira stared 
down at the magazine cover in front of him and sighed. How pathetic was 
he to have to resort to looking at pictures of half-naked women as a 
release for his pent-up sexual energy? His mother was right -- he did 
need a girlfriend. Badly.    

	Especially if he was having sex dreams about one of his 
students.

	“Forget about Ami-chan!” Akira ordered himself, opening the 
magazine to a random page. 

	Though there were several racy photos placed on the two-page 
spread, Akira found himself zoning in mostly on the sexy redhead on 
page 32. She was about as opposite to Ami as could be, with shoulder-
length ringlets and mischievous green eyes, not to mention very large 
breasts that seemed to defy his extensive knowledge of the laws of 
physics. Under normal circumstances, Akira probably wouldn’t have found 
the model no more than mildly attractive, but she was the perfect 
choice to distract him from his thoughts of Ami.

	Akira began burning the provocative image into his mind, so 
intent on the photograph that he didn’t even notice when Dr. Nakajima 
entered the classroom until the older professor loudly cleared his 
throat from his spot in front of the desk.

	“Am I interrupting something?” he asked as Akira involuntarily 
jumped and moved to close the magazine, even though he was almost 
certain Dr. Nakajima had already gotten a good look at its contents.

	“Um…it’s not what you’re thinking, Nakajima-sensei,” Akira 
said, feeling as if he was fifteen again and his mother had just found 
his stash of porn magazines -- on loan to him by his much older 
classmates -- underneath the mattress. “You see, I…uh…”

	His mentor laughed, picking up the discarded magazine and 
flipping through the pages. “No need to explain, Akira-kun. I used to 
have a subscription to this magazine myself in my younger days. Nothing 
to be ashamed about.”

	“It’s not like that at all,” Akira insisted. “In fact, it’s all 
*your* fault I bought it in the first place.”

	“My fault?” Arching an eyebrow, Dr. Nakajima set the magazine 
back down on the desk and turned his attention on Akira, who promptly 
put the magazine away in the top drawer of his desk, away from the eyes 
of anybody else who might walk in. “Why do you say that? What did I do 
to make you go out and buy a men’s magazine?”

	“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

	“Come now, you can’t just tell me I was the reason why you 
bought that magazine, then refuse to tell me why.”

	“Well…”

	Akira hadn’t originally intended to tell anybody about the 
dream, but if there was one person who might understand what he was 
going through, it was Dr. Nakajima. Standing from his chair, he went 
over to the door and looked out into the hall to make sure nobody was 
standing outside. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he then 
closed the door and locked it. The last thing he needed was for a 
student, or worse, Ami herself, walking in and overhearing their 
conversation.

	“This must be something big,” Dr. Nakajima commented, taking a 
seat in one of the students’ desks. “Why the secrecy, Akira-kun?”

	Resuming his seat behind his desk, Akira sighed and ran a hand 
nervously through his hair. He didn’t even know where to start. The 
whole thing was beyond embarrassing, but, somehow, he managed to get 
the words out.

	“I had a dream last night,” Akira hesitantly began, looking 
over at the older man to see his reaction. Dr. Nakajima remained 
emotionless, so he went on. “It took place right here in this room. I’m 
pretty sure it must have been a Friday, because I recall some student 
leaving his notebook behind and me thinking he had forgotten it in the 
rush to start the weekend, but, in any case, I know it was the end of 
the day because I was getting ready to go to that Chinese place near 
campus for some takeout before heading for the labs.”

	“Doesn’t seem too unusual so far.”

	“No, but then there was a knock on the door,” Akira continued. 
“I assumed it was the student who had left his notebook behind, so of 
course I told him to come in.”

	“But it wasn’t?”

	Akira shook his head. “When I finally turned around to see who 
it was, I saw Mizuno Ami-chan standing in the doorway, wearing the 
girls’ uniform from my old middle school and a positively seductive 
smile on her face.”

	At that revelation, his mentor did react, his eyes widening 
slightly in comprehension. “Don’t tell me it was *that* sort of dream.”

	“What other kind would it be?” he replied sardonically. “Pretty 
girls in too-short school uniforms don’t normally show up in dreams 
just to ‘talk.’”

	“No, I suppose they don’t, do they?” Dr. Nakajima sighed, 
pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger. 
“But you can’t say I didn’t warn you, Akira-kun. I told you that it was 
unwise to develop an attraction toward Mizuno-san--”

	“What? No, I’m *not* attracted to Ami-chan. I told you that at 
the coffee house,” Akira reminded him, faintly annoyed that Dr. 
Nakajima still insisted there was some sort of attraction between him 
and his student assistant.

	“I’d say the fact you had an erotic dream about her proves 
otherwise.”

	“The *only* reason I even dreamed about Ami-chan in that way in 
the first place is because of what you said a couple of days ago,” he 
accused, “nothing more.”

	“Ah, so that’s why I’m to blame for you reading that magazine,” 
the professor said, nodding in understanding.

	“At least partially.” Frowning, Akira reached for a pencil 
laying on his desk and began tapping it against the surface. “To be 
honest, I’ve… Well, I’ve been going through a dry spell, lately.”

	“How long has it been?”

	Akira hesitated for a moment, more than a bit self-conscious, 
before finally admitting, “Over a year.”

	Dr. Nakajima let out a low whistle. “Well, no wonder you had 
that dream about Mizuno-san. You’re frustrated.”

	“No kidding.” Akira sighed, leaning back in his chair. “There’s 
been no one since Maeko,” he confessed. “Don‘t get me wrong, I date 
occasionally, but the problem is, it never leads anywhere. I‘m lucky if 
we make it to the third date before one of us realizes it‘s just not 
going to work out between us.”

	“Some men would consider that more than enough time to make a 
move,” his mentor pointed out.

	“Yes, well, I was never one for cheap sex. I at least want to 
learn a little more about the girl before sleeping with her.”

	“That is usually the best course of action, I agree.” 

	“So what am I supposed to do?” Akira asked, rubbing his 
forehead. “Visit the red light district? Rent crappy hentai anime?”

	He scowled as Dr. Nakajima started to snicker, trying 
unsuccessfully to hide the fact behind his hand. Akira failed to see 
what was so amusing about his current lack of a sex life.

	“It’s not funny, Nakajima-sensei. I’m being serious.”

	“I know, I know.” Composing himself, the older man brought his 
hand back down. “I’m sorry, Akira-kun,” he apologized. “I wasn’t 
laughing at you. It’s just that what you said reminded me of some of 
the things I used to do in my more youthful years whenever I…well, 
didn’t have an outlet for my needs.”

	“Oh?” Akira straightened up, interested in spite of himself. He 
was almost willing to try anything if it meant he wouldn’t have to 
worry about having another sexy dream about his number one student. 
"Like what?”

	Getting up from the desk he was sitting in, Dr. Nakajima shook 
his head. “I’d rather not go into details. I’m sure you’d sleep better 
not knowing the specifics of your former teacher’s sex life,” he said 
with a small smile. “However, if this thing with Mizuno-san is really 
bothering you so much, then go out there and find yourself a date. A 
fun night on the town with a nice girl sounds like exactly what you 
need, and if things happen to lead to the bedroom, all the better, 
right?”

	“You sound just like my mother,” Akira groaned, “minus the 
whole ‘go out and get laid’ part…although considering how much she 
wants grandchildren, she probably wouldn‘t object.”

	“Well, if that’s the case,  maybe you should listen to her for 
once.” Glancing down at his watch, Nakajima stood back up. “Sorry, 
Akira-kun, I’d like to help you more, but I should probably be going. I 
have an early lecture today.” 

	“Okay. See you at lunch?”

	Nakajima nodded. “I was thinking we should go out for Chinese. 
That dream of yours has me in the mood.”

	“Sounds fine to me. I’ll meet you there.”

	After saying goodbye and showing Nakajima out, Akira went back 
to his desk and was about to pull the magazine out again when he 
remembered Nakajima’s advice. Perhaps his mentor was onto something. 
Maybe instead of porn or some other poor substitute, what he needed was 
to go on a date with an actual flesh-and-blood girl. At least if he 
did, then maybe his mother would stop e-mailing him links to online 
dating services. That was reason enough to consider it. 

	But who would he ask out? He hadn’t really met anybody new 
recently. During their last phone call, his mother had mentioned 
something about setting him up with the daughter of a friend who had 
recently moved to Tokyo, but Akira had quickly rejected that idea, not 
in the mood for a blind date.  

	That really only left him with one choice.

	After closing the drawer with the magazine, he opened the one 
underneath it and pulled out his address book. Then getting out his 
cell phone, Akira dialed the number of his last date.

	“Hello, Sato-san? I don’t know if you remember me, but this is 
Kitagawa Akira. I was wondering…”

*****

	Yui was pleased when she arrived at her advanced chemistry 
class that morning and found an empty seat in the front row of the 
class where the girl genius usually sat. It looked like Mizuno Ami was 
absent once again, which gave Yui one more day to prove to Professor 
Kitagawa that she would make a better assistant than Little Miss 
Perfect. As of yet, he still hadn’t offered her the job.

	Sure enough, when class was over, the professor, who had seemed 
a little distracted during his lecture, asked her if she would be 
willing to work an extra day. Though Yui had already made tentative 
plans for a study date with Hideki, she readily agreed, knowing that 
her boyfriend would understand if he knew what was good for him. She 
left the classroom with a smile on her face, greeting a surprised 
Hideki, who was waiting for her outside the door, with a kiss on the 
cheek.

	“What do you mean Kitagawa-sensei asked you to work tonight?” 
Hideki asked when she told him the news. “I thought you were supposed 
to come over to my place.”

	“Mizuno-san is still out sick, so I told him I wouldn’t mind 
coming to the labs tonight,” Yui explained with a shrug. “It’s only one 
more night. You won‘t even miss me.” 

	She didn’t dare tell him of her plans to steal the position 
away from Miss Mizuno. Hideki had been complaining about her lack of 
free time ever since she took the job, and she suspected he would be 
none too happy to hear that she was looking to make things permanent.

	“Fine,” he sighed, “but you owe me.”   

	Smiling, Yui once again kissed his cheek and smiled. “I promise 
I’ll make it up to you,” she said before heading to the library to put 
her plan in action.

	Yui spent the rest of the day preparing for that afternoon’s 
lab session during whatever free time she managed to find. She had made 
copies of several articles relevant to the experiments they had been 
working on the past few days and read them between classes, determined 
to remember every single fact she could get her hands on. By the time 
five o’clock rolled around, Yui was confident that she knew everything 
she needed to know about Professor Kitagawa’s current research, a fact 
that was bound to impress him.  

	When she arrived at the lab, she found Professor Kitagawa 
sitting at his desk and flipping through a medical journal, which he 
set aside when she arrived. “Ah, Yokoyama-san,” he greeted, standing up 
from his chair, “thank you again for agreeing to work this session on 
such short notice. Ami-ch-- I mean, Mizuno-san was supposed to be back 
today, but it appears she’s still ill. I hope I didn‘t ruin any plans 
you may have had for the evening.”

	“No, not at all,” Yui lied, inwardly bristling at the fact that 
he almost called Miss Mizuno “Ami-chan.” Really, how unprofessional. 
"I’m happy to work for as long as you need me.”

	“Well, tonight should be the last night. I expect Mizuno-san 
will be back to class tomorrow, recovered and well.” There was a 
strange look on his face when he said that, one that Yui could not 
quite read, but it quickly disappeared as he grabbed his lab coat from 
the back of his desk chair and pulled it on. “Shall we get to work, 
then?”

	“Hai.”

	They headed to the main lab, and Yui began setting up for the 
day’s experiment, taking care to be extra thorough in checking for 
cracks in the glassware and making sure all the equipment was in 
working order. However, Professor Kitagawa, much to her annoyance, 
didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her, looking over their 
results from yesterday. Deciding it was time to show off some of the 
knowledge she had accumulated during the day, she lightly cleared her 
throat and said, “You know, I was just reading that journal you were 
flipping through when I arrived.”

	“Oh?”

	“I found that American researcher’s article on glucogon-like 
peptide 1 particularly interesting. If what it says is true, it could 
be a great help to your own research in the field.” 

	“Yes, I know. I’ve already made copies for several of my 
colleagues,” he said dismissively.

	“I was thinking it might be beneficial to perform last Friday’s 
experiment again, taking into consideration the new findings,” she 
suggested, not willing to give up. If she could only come up with one 
brilliant idea to impress him, Yui was positive Professor Kitagawa 
would fire Miss Mizuno and hire her on the spot. “The results might be 
more conclusive a second time.” 

	“I’ve already scheduled the experiment for the end of next 
week.”

	Yui sighed, disappointed to learn that he had already came to 
the same conclusion she had. “Oh.”

	The exchange set the tone for the rest of the session. Every 
time she would suggest an article to read or proposed an idea, the 
professor had already gotten to it first. By the end of the session, 
Yui was thoroughly frustrated, especially when he again thanked her for 
coming without a word about making things permanent. It looked as if 
she would have to be more direct about her objective. Even if he was 
unwilling to replace Miss Mizuno, she wouldn’t mind becoming his second 
assistant and biding her time before he realized she was the only 
assistant he needed.

	“Kitagawa-sensei?”

	The professor, who was putting their lab coats away in the 
closet, turned back around to look at her. “Hmm?”

	“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed working with you,” she 
said in her sweetest voice. “I’ve learned so much over the past few 
days, and I regret that it’s over so soon.”

	“Well, if I ever have need for a temp again, I’ll know who to 
call. You‘ve been a great help during Mizuno-san‘s absence.”

	“Actually, I was wondering if it would be possible to become 
your permanent assistant.”

	With a sigh, Professor Kitagawa reached back into the closet 
and pulled out his brown sport coat. “Yokoyama-san, you know I already 
have an assistant. This was only supposed to be a temporary position. I 
thought you understood that.”

	“I know, and I’m sure Mizuno-san is capable at her job, but an 
extra pair of hands couldn’t hurt, could it?” Yui asked.

	“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid there just isn’t enough money in the 
budget to pay for a second assistant, especially when I don’t need 
another one.”

	“The money doesn’t matter. I’d be willing to work for free if I 
could continue working together with you.”

	“Like I said before, I don’t have a need for another assistant 
at the moment, Yokoyama-san, but if you would like, I could ask around 
and see if there is another position open for you, maybe something 
closer to your chosen field,” he offered. “You said you wanted to 
become a plastic surgeon, right? I believe Takai-sensei in 
dermatological testing has an opening if you‘re interested.”

	Yui shook her head. If she couldn’t have Miss Mizuno’s 
position, she found she wasn’t really interested in the idea of another 
job. As much as she hated to admit it, a large part of her wanting to 
work with Professor Kitagawa was the fact that Miss Mizuno had stolen 
the opportunity away from her the first time, rather than any real 
desire to work in pharmaceuticals. “No, that‘s okay,” she sighed, 
defeated. “Thank you for the offer though.” 

	“If you change you mind, I’d be happy to recommend you.”

*****

	Hideki sat on a bench outside the Institute of Medical Science, 
waiting for his girlfriend to walk her back to her dorm. Yui said she 
wouldn’t be later than seven, but a quick glance at his watch revealed 
it was already seven-ten. He sighed, hoping that tonight would be the 
last night she would have to work with Professor Kitagawa. They had 
spent very little time together since she had taken on the temporary 
job, and he was looking forward to having her back to himself again.

	He didn’t have to wait too much longer for Yui to appear. The 
redhead stormed out of the building a couple of minutes later, almost 
passing right by him. If he hadn’t reached out to grab her arm and stop 
her, she probably would have. When she was angry, Yui tended to have a 
one-track mind.

	“Hey, what’s going on?” Hideki asked, ignoring her shouts to 
let her go. “What’s wrong, Yui?”

	Yui’s face softened somewhat when she saw who it was who 
grabbed her arm, and she sighed. “Oh, Hideki, it’s you. Don’t scare me 
like that. What are you doing here?”

	“I came to walk you home, but never mind that. What has got you 
so mad?”

	“Kitagawa-sensei told me that Mizuno-san plans to come back to 
work tomorrow, so he doesn‘t need me anymore,” Yui mumbled.

	“So? That’s great,” Hideki said, regretting his words as soon 
as they left his mouth.

	His girlfriend glared at him, yanking her arm out of his grip. 
“No, it is not ‘great.’ Kitagawa-sensei was supposed to fire her and 
hire me!”

	Hideki had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, sure that Yui 
would hardly appreciate the gesture. Instead, he tried to calm her back 
down. “Yui, you knew going into this that he just hired you on a 
temporary basis to fill in for Mizuno-san. Don‘t tell me you actually 
believed that the replacement would be permanent.”

	“I’m not stupid, Hideki. I knew the position was only 
temporary.”

	“Then why are you so upset?” he asked, confused. “You knew he 
was going to let you go eventually. This can’t have come as a 
surprise.”

	“Ugh, sometimes you can be so clueless!” Yui snapped, throwing 
herself on the bench and crossing her arms over her chest.

	Feeling as if a headache was about to come on, Hideki rubbed at 
his right temple. Women! Sometimes, he really did think that men and 
women must have come from different planets. Did Yui expect him to be 
some kind of mind reader or something? How was he supposed to know what 
she was thinking when she wouldn’t tell him?

	“Well, why don’t you explain it to me if I’m so clueless?” he 
suggested, taking a seat next to her on the bench.

	“I thought that maybe if I showed Kitagawa-sensei what a good 
assistant I was, he would decide to get rid of Mizuno-san and hire me 
on full-time,” she finally admitted, looking down at her clenched 
hands. “I know I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up like that, but it 
just makes me so…angry! The first time I tried applying for the job, he 
had already hired Mizuno-san without giving anybody else a chance, but 
now that I’ve had the chance to prove myself, he still went back to 
Little Miss Perfect. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to 
beat her!”

	Hideki exhaled loudly. He should have known that she was more 
upset about “losing” to Miss Mizuno than about losing the job itself. 
That was the way it always was, and it seemed her obsession with 
beating her academic rival was extending outside the classroom as well, 
if her attempt to steal Mizuno Ami’s job was any indication.

	“Yui, just because he didn’t fire Mizuno-san doesn’t 
necessarily mean that you aren’t the better assistant,” he said, 
wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Don’t take it so 
personally. I’m sure if the position had been vacated, you would have 
been the first person to come to mind to fill it, but the fact is that 
he already had an assistant and he wasn’t looking for a new one. He 
only needed a temporary replacement for Mizuno-san.” 

	“Really? You really think he would have hired me if Mizuno-san 
hadn‘t got to him first?”

	“I know so. You‘re the most brilliant person I know, and if 
Kitagawa-sensei couldn‘t see that, then that‘s his loss.”

	“Oh, Hideki…” 

	Much to Hideki’s surprise, Yui rested her head on his shoulder, 
and he felt her body relax against him. Considering the unforgiving 
schedule she had put herself through for the past week, she must have 
been exhausted. Hideki lightly kissed the top of her head, then helped 
her stand back up.

	“Come on, I’ll take you home.”

*****

	“I really had a wonderful time, tonight, Akira-san. Dinner was 
delicious.”

	Stopping outside her apartment door, his date for the evening 
turned and smiled at Akira, her dark eyes looking up at him with what 
he could only describe as desire. She was trying her best not to look 
too eager, but Akira had gone out with enough women to know that she 
had no intention of letting the date end so soon. 

	In fact, he had been fully aware of Sato Kaede’s objectives 
from the moment she asked him to walk her upstairs instead of saying 
goodnight outside her building as he had done the previous two times 
they had gone out. Under normal circumstances, Akira probably would 
have politely refused the request, saying it was too soon in the 
relationship, but his raging hormones were hard to ignore, winning over 
his more noble thoughts. He had followed the pretty brunette inside the 
apartment complex without protest, silently cursing his weakness.

	Akira honestly had not expected things to go so fast when he 
decided to ask Kaede out for dinner after the conversation with Dr. 
Nakajima, despite his mentor‘s suggestion. The two of them had gone out 
a couple times before, but while she was a nice enough girl, there had 
been no real sparks between them. His only intention in asking her out 
again was to try to get his mind off Mizuno Ami, who, thankfully, had 
not shown up for class that morning, and have a fun night on the town, 
yet he was afraid that Kaede may have gotten the wrong impression.

	It wouldn’t be so bad if they had actually managed to hit it 
off this time. A part of him had been hoping the third date would be a 
charm, but again, Akira felt nothing but friendship toward her. 

	He had almost found the courage to tell Kaede just that when 
she pulled her keys out from her clutch purse, and turning to unlock 
the door, asked, “Would you like to come in for a drink?”

	“Actually, I don‘t think that‘s such a good id--” Akira stopped 
himself just in time, noticing the disappointment starting to show on 
Kaede’s face. After using her as he did, he supposed the least he could 
do was have a drink with her. “On second thought, I would love to.”

	“Great.” Opening the door, she showed him inside her apartment. 
“I’m sorry the place is kind of a mess,” Kaede apologized as Akira 
helped her out of her cropped leather jacket, revealing the black lace 
dress she wore underneath. “I meant to clean up before our date 
tonight, but I’ve just been so busy lately.”

	“It’s fine,” he assured her as he glanced around at the only 
mildly messy apartment while she hung her jacket in the coat closet. In 
all honesty, Akira probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t 
mentioned it, the clutter confined only to a couple of books 
haphazardly tossed onto the coffee table and a cup of forgotten half-
drunk coffee sitting by the phone, but one of the first things he had 
learned about his date was that she was almost obsessively neat, a 
trait Akira attributed to the fact that she was currently a graduate 
student in mathematics at Keiou. “You have a nice place here.”

	“Thank you.” After taking a moment to straighten the books and 
take the mug back to the kitchen, Kaede headed toward the liquor 
cabinet. She pulled out two crystal glasses and a bottle of red wine. 
“Is Pinot Noir okay with you?” she asked.

	Akira nodded, his hands in his pockets as he stared out the 
large window that took up practically one entire wall. “One of my 
favorites.”

	“Mine too,” she said, pouring the glasses and walking over to 
join him. “Wonderful view, isn’t it?”

	“Yeah.”

	From Kaede’s tenth floor apartment, they had a fantastic 
vantage point from which to look down at Tokyo Bay. Of course, because 
it was nighttime, it was hard to see much of anything, but the luminous 
moon and a handful of twinkling stars provided enough illumination to 
make out the dark waves crashing against the shore, as well as a couple 
of ships still out on the water. In the daytime, Akira suspected the 
view was even more spectacular.

	Finally bored of looking out the window, Kaede sat down on the 
couch and took a sip of her drink. “You know, I must admit I was rather 
surprised when you called, Akira-san,” she said, bringing her glass 
down.

	Akira, his attention pulled away from the view and back to his 
date, turned around, somewhat startled. “Oh? Why is that?”

	“It’s just that I was under the impression you weren’t 
interested in me anymore. You never called after our last date.” 

	“Gomen nasai, Kaede-san,” he apologized, hiding an embarrassed 
grimace as he made his way over to the couch beside her. Akira had been 
hoping she wouldn’t bring that up.

	The brunette shook her head, brushing it off. “It’s fine, but 
what made you decide to call me so suddenly after two months?”

	Stalling, Akira brought his glass to his lips and took a long 
drink as his mind raced to come up with a response that didn’t make him 
look like a complete jerk. He couldn’t exactly tell her that the only 
reason he called was because he had an erotic dream about another woman 
which he was trying to forget and she was the first person he thought 
of to call for a distraction.

	“I’ve been thinking about you lately,” he finally replied 
softly, not able to look Kaede in the eye. It wasn’t a complete lie, 
but it wasn’t the truth either. “I feel that I didn’t exactly give you 
a fair chance the last time we went out, and I wanted to mend that.”

	“I see.” Evidently pleased with his answer, she smiled. “Are 
you glad you gave me a second chance?”	

	“H-Hai.”

	“Me too.”

	Kaede sat her wine glass down on the coffee table, and much to 
Akira’s surprise, took his as well. Then, moving closer toward him, she 
placed her hand on his knee, running it up his thigh and causing him to 
draw in a hissing breath. 

	“Kaede-san, I-I…”

	“Don’t talk,” she said, bringing the hand up to place a finger 
on his lips. “Just kiss me.”

	For a long moment, Akira just sat there, motionless as he tried 
to wrap his mind around what was happening. He didn’t know why he was 
so surprised, since he had suspected that Kaede wanted to sleep with 
him, but he supposed he figured she would wait for him to make the 
first move. He had actually been counting on that, secure in the fact 
that he was in control of the situation.

	However, with Kaede coming onto him, ready and willing, Akira 
was finding it hard to resist. His resolve to remain a gentleman 
crumbled underneath her innocently -- or maybe not so -- seductive gaze 
and the soft touch of her fingertip, which she ran across his bottom 
lip. He involuntarily reached up to wrap his hand around her wrist, and 
bringing her hand back down to rest on his thigh, Akira leaned forward 
to kiss her.

	It was not by any means the best kiss he ever had, but Akira 
didn’t care, his tongue mashing against Kaede’s as if he was a thirsty 
man in a desert drinking his first sip of water in days. Even Kaede 
seemed surprised by his sudden urgency, but she readily complied, 
cupping his face in her hands as she returned his fervor.

	Somehow, they ended up in a laying position on the couch, Akira 
on top of Kaede, who squirmed underneath him as she tried to get 
comfortable on the leather sofa. His jacket had been tossed -- neatly 
-- onto a nearby armchair, and most of the buttons of his untucked 
shirt were open, allowing Kaede to land teasing kisses on his chest, 
occasionally flicking her tongue over his nipples. Akira, feeling 
himself harden almost instantly, pushed up the bottom of Kaede’s dress 
and was about to reach for the waistband of her underwear when she 
suddenly pushed him off of her and sat up.

	“Kaede-san, something wrong?” he asked, fighting his first urge 
to swear in frustration. After all the obvious signals she’d been 
giving him, she better not have changed her mind. 

	However, Kaede shook her head. “No,” she said, standing and 
taking his hand. “Let’s take this someplace more comfortable.” 

	Understanding, Akira allowed Kaede to lead him to her bedroom, 
which was just as neat and organized as her living room. As he took a 
seat on the edge of her queen-sized bed, Kaede pulled out a CD from her 
alphabetized collection and placed it in the CD player. The jazzy 
sounds of Kenny G soon filled the air, and walking over to the bed, 
Kaede stood between Akira’s legs and helped him out of his shirt.

	Resting her hands on his bared shoulders, the sexy 
mathematician pushed him back further up the bed so that she could 
straddle him, a knee placed on either side of his hips, which caused 
her already short dress to ride up even higher. Akira ran his hands up 
her newly-exposed thighs and squeezed her buttocks firmly, groaning 
when Kaede pressed down against him. His hands then traveled up higher, 
finding the zipper at the top of her dress and pulling it all the way 
down to where it ended at the small of her back. As she sat back up, 
the thin spaghetti straps slipped down her arms until the top half of 
the dress pooled around her waist and her entire torso was revealed.

	“Like what you see?” Kaede asked, leaning slightly forward so 
Akira had a good view of her breasts almost popping out of her nude-
colored strapless bra.

	“Yeah…”

	Pulling Kaede against his chest, Akira rolled them both over on 
the bed so that he was on top. He managed to push down the rest of her 
dress, Kaede using her legs to help kick it out of the way, then began 
kissing her collarbone, pinning her arms above her head. 

	Because her hands were otherwise occupied, all Kaede could do 
was sigh in pleasure, her body pressing against him in need. Her legs 
spread apart even further, and Akira, one hand still holding Kaede 
against the bed, reached down to release himself from the increasingly 
uncomfortable confines of his pants. 

	“Do you have a condom?” she asked breathlessly as he brought 
his hand back up to cup her breast through the satin fabric of her bra.

	“Yeah, but it’s in the living room,” Akira answered with a 
groan as he looked toward the door. His wallet, where he usually kept 
one just in case, was in the jacket they had left behind on the 
armchair. “I’ll go get it.”

	Reluctantly, he started to get up, but Kaede reached for his 
arm, stopping him. “No need,” she insisted, sitting back up and 
reaching for the knob of her nightstand drawer. “I should have one 
around here somewhere... Here it is.”

	She tossed the small package to him and Akira quickly slipped 
it on, not knowing how much longer he would last. Normally, he had much 
more control over things, but he was admittedly out of practice. 
Deciding to let Kaede resume the dominant position, he laid back down 
on the bed, and the brunette once again straddled him, bending forward 
so that she could swirl her tongue over his nipples.   

	While Kaede continued to work her magic, Akira closed his eyes 
and let himself simply enjoy the moment. Dr. Nakajima was right; this 
was exactly what he needed. A roll around in the sack with a pretty 
girl was just the cure--

	Suddenly, his eyes flew open and Akira’s body stiffened, 
paralyzed by a new sensation. Kaede had finished playing with his 
nipples, and so she had begun moving upwards, leaving a trail of wet 
kisses as she made her way up to his left ear. Taking the lobe between 
her lips, she gently began nibbling on the sensitive flesh, but instead 
of arousing him, the memory of the blue-haired seductress from his 
dream flashed before his eyes.  

	Stop it, Akira ordered himself silently, trying to block the 
image of a uniform-clad Mizuno Ami from his mind. Focus on Kaede-san.

	In an attempt to forget about Ami, Akira rolled Kaede once 
again onto her back and pulled his ear away from her mouth. She moaned 
in protest, but she didn’t seem to mind when he sat back up and began 
kissing her raised right knee, his hand running along the silky skin of 
her inner thigh. As he continued to explore the other parts of Kaede’s 
body, Akira was successful for the most part in his mission, managing 
to put Ami and the dream completely out of his mind as he focused on 
increasing his partner‘s pleasure.

	However, Kaede soon grew impatient with his extended foreplay. 
Taking the initiative as Akira made his way back up her body, she 
guided one of his hands to the crotch of her panties -- a silent signal 
she was ready for more. Again reminded of the dream, Akira yanked his 
hand away and abruptly stopped, much to Kaede’s surprise.

	“Akira-san?” 

	Akira sat back up and grabbed his discarded shirt off the 
floor, putting it back on. As much as he would have liked to continue 
where they had left off, he couldn’t. Sex with Kaede was supposed to 
help him get over the dream he had with Ami, not remind him more of it.

	“Gomen nasai, Kaede-san,” he apologized, zipping up his pants. 
“I have to go.”  

	“What?” Sitting back up, the brunette reached for a large 
pillow to cover herself up. “Akira-san, what’s wrong? Did I do 
something?”

	“It’s not you. I, uh, I just shouldn’t be here. I’m sorry.” 

	Kaede stared at him, confused, as Akira headed back to the 
living room for his jacket. He really hated leaving her like that, but 
he didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t lead her on like that, 
knowing that she probably wasn’t after just a one-night stand. While he 
slipped on his shoes at the front door, Kaede reappeared, tying her 
robe around her waist.

	“Akira-san, wait,” she said, stopping him before he opened the 
door to leave. Akira turned back around. “Why are you leaving?” Kaede 
demanded to know. “I don’t understand. I thought things were going well 
between us, and I really like you.”

	“They were. I had a great time with you tonight,” Akira said 
honestly. It hadn’t been the most fantastic date in the world, but he 
had enjoyed himself. 

	“Then why--?”

	Akira shook his head before she could finish asking the 
question. “It’s just not going to work out between us. I’m sorry.”

	“Oh.” 

	She took the announcement rather well -- no begging for another 
chance or bursting into tears -- for which he was grateful. Akira 
chastely kissed her cheek before opening the door.

	“I’ll see you around, Kaede-san. Goodnight,” he said, starting 
to leave when Kaede popped her head out into the hall.

	“Akira-san?”

	Akira turned back around, figuring she just wanted to tell him 
goodnight. “Yes?”

	“Next time you get the urge to call me, don’t bother.”

	And with that, Sato Kaede slammed the door in his face.



DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Any comments or criticisms can be sent to me at 
ElysionDream@aol.com. Thanks to my editors, Starsea and I Abibde/
Samuraiter.

The title of the article was borrowed from http://diabetes.
diabetesjournals.org/ and was taken from a real article.